"Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul . . ." ~Emily Dickinson

26 January 2010

Footloose and Facebook-free

The other night I was on Facebook, and things started messing up. It wouldn't allow me to post on any wall or update my status. After a while, it knocked me offline and would not allow me to log on for about 30 minutes or so.

At first, I (mildly) panicked for about 38 seconds when Lanecia said that she couldn't even get on my FB page. "I was deleted from Facebook!!! Argh!" But then came the whelming sense of calm. "I was deleted from Facebook . . . siiighhh!" Something felt really good about it.

So when they finished with their maintenance and all that jazz, and I was able to log back into my account, I immediately deactivated it. And it feels so very, very good for this particular time.

I suppose this is a season, and I'll join Facebook again. I could be back to posting news articles, quotes and Pray With Africa updates and liking photographs and statuses in a week or a month or sometime thereafter . . . Who knows? But for now, I'm just enjoying this nice, lovely breath of fresh air.

May you find ways to listen to what feels right and breathe fresh air, as well--whether it be in letting go of something or daring to try something new. May you be surrounded by a whelming sense of calm and listen to it.

4 comments:

did you note all the steps it took to deactivate it? i haven't done it yet, but i have friends who have and it was shocking.

i def feel you did the right thing for what you need in this present moment – it's crazy how addicting it can be. i've seriously considered it myself.

i'm thinking more about what i'm posting (what is the root behind it? to get approval? to be perceived a particular way? or to spread joy? or truth?) and also what i'm allowing to get into my brain from other people. i like to think of it as protecting the portal of my mind.

I am so close to de-activating mine. I have found it exhausting with the half and half mix of my massachusetts law school friends and my alabama undergrad friends and over a hundred "friends" i don't even really know or remember. I haven't used FB regularly since mid November and at this point, the only two reasons I keep it are (a) it's the place where jon & mechelle post anna pictures and (b)as a way for people to contact me, if they needed to, who don't have my email - mostly for professional reasons. At whatever point those two things aren't worth it, it's gone.

On a side note, I love Twitter. No one can post offensive things on my wall or page and it's only people I genuinely know so they never take anything the wrong way.

Lane also doesn't do FB. I'm not sure if he has deactivated it yet, but he's talked about it and hasn't been on there in months.